Most Helpful Customer Reviews
76 of 79 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Help for people who obsess about morality, August 5, 1997
By A Customer
This review is from: The Doubting Disease: Help for Scrupulosity and Religious Compulsions (Integration Books) (Paperback)
Do you have unwanted, intrusive thoughts?
Do you feel the need to do the same thing over and
over again?
Do you worry about whether you will go to
heaven or hell?
If you answered yes to two or all of these questions, The Doubting Disease will be of interest to you. It describes the torment
of scrupulosity, or excessive worry about
moral issues, which in some cases may be a
manifestation of Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder.
The Doubting Disease describes scrupulosity
and outlines a self-help plan. It also
briefly describes how to get professional
help for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
The book is written from a Christian perspective.
It is a must for people who have constant doubts
about:
* whether or not they have committed a sin
* whether or not they have confessed their
sins correctly (for Catholics)
* a scheme of "rules" they may have created for
themselves
* whether or not they are saved
* whether or not they have harmed someone.
The book costs just a fraction of the cost of
professional therapy, but it is no substitute
for a wise spiritual director or a competent
psychotherapist. Furthermore, some physical
disorders may cause scrupulous symptoms, so I
(not the author) recommend a physical exam and visit to a physician for anyone with any psychological symptoms.
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book helped turn my life around, February 5, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Doubting Disease: Help for Scrupulosity and Religious Compulsions (Integration Books) (Paperback)
If you have trouble with obsessive-compulsive disorder then you do not have to keep suffering. God loves you and you do not have to live your life in morbid fear. Please read this book and find someone who can help you apply it. I once thought that to get rid of my excessive scrupulosity I would have to get rid of my faith, and I would never do that. But this book helped me understand that because my fears were abnormal and beyond what was required for my religion, it was possible for me to gradually learn to get past them. I still struggle but now life is a joy, not a torture.
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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Godsend, October 11, 2005
This review is from: The Doubting Disease: Help for Scrupulosity and Religious Compulsions (Integration Books) (Paperback)
'The Doubting Disease' is arguably the most important book ever written on this terrible affliction. As a Christian whose life, over the last 30 years, has been scarred by Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)/Scrupulosity, I know. The book has helped me enormously. At the age of 13, I began to show symptoms of OCD: the typical counting, tapping, walking back-and-forth rituals were beginning to become distracting and noticeable (Yes, I did have repeated bouts of strep throat as a child.) Then, at 15, my parents, who had intentionally raised me without any religious training, semi-unwittingly sent me to a summer camp in Maine that happened to be Christian Fundamentalist. Over the 2 months there, I took part in daily Bible study, heard many fire-and-brimstone sermons and was constantly encouraged to convert by the camp counselors who were all born-again Christians. The timing of this experience with my pre-existing OCD couldn't have been worse - my intense fears about salvation, hellfire and belief in God, now fully enflamed by the camp (and the occasional Fundamentalist preacher on shortwave radio) combined with the biochemical disorder going on in my brain. The resulting mixture was so volatile that I am still recovering to this day. By age 16, I was literally jumping off the wall. Caught in the throes of full-blown OCD rituals that were colored by unfounded religious notions, I was tormented throughout my high school years. Numerous times each evening during dinner, I would get up and compulsively jump to touch the ceiling in an attempt to "catch" a blasphemous thought from reaching Heaven. Within a year the ceiling in our kitchen was literally blackened with my fingerprints. At the height of my suffering with this disease, my scrupulous obsessions were so fearful and the corresponding compulsions so persuasive that I was once moved to fall to my knees in the middle of a crowded high school corridor in front of all of my friends in order to achieve forgiveness for some unacceptable thought. My parents were beside themselves with worry and thought that I might be schizophrenic. I was shuttled between neurologist, family therapist and other "professionals", none of whom had the slightest inkling of what was going on. This, unfortunately, was the late-70s, ten years before the world would learn about this insidious disease. It wasn't until 1989 with Daniel Goleman's wonderful article in the 'New York Times' and Judith Rapoport's 'The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing' that I discovered the cause of my suffering over the previous 14 years. A cardio-nervous breakdown at age 19 (I have the unfortunate distinction of suffering real, physical cardiac irritation when I am engaged in mental compulsions) and years of self-therapy and writing cured me of the worst obsessions and compulsions, but I was still suffering. I began to seek psychiatric help and at the age of 30, after a costly 2 year delay caused by irresponsible warnings from the Church of Scientology (during which I deteriorated into a period of anxiety, panic attacks and frequent trips to emergency room and my cardiologist), I was finally on 20 mg of Prozac daily. This thankfully resulted in further improvement, especially with the anxiety and panic attacks that were becoming disabling and interfering with my developing career as an executive in the international telecommunications industry. However, mental demons in the form of persistent religious ruminations, obsessions and painful, time-wasting compulsions continued to plague me. Fear of committing the Unforgivable Sin (From the Book of Matthew) and accidentally selling my soul to the devil were recurring themes occupying my mind for years and years. It was only through the behavioral Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) strategies presented by Mr. Ciarrocchi in this book, that I was able to achieve some degree of normalcy and freedom from the shackles of OCD/Scrupulosity. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is needlessly suffering from The Doubting Disease.
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